


The Sound of Moonlight

by eClair23



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 05:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18492004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eClair23/pseuds/eClair23
Summary: Hermione and Ron share a quiet moment outside the Burrow.





	The Sound of Moonlight

The warm summer breeze rustled the leaves overhead. Hermione Granger sat beneath the leaves, staring across the field by the Weasleys’ house.

She breathed slowly, in, out, taking in the clean night air. She leaned her back against the big, knotted tree in the Weasleys’ front yard, listening to the faint sounds of the house settling and the gnomes banging around in the garden. 

She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the normalcy and safety of her surroundings. It was hard to adjust to being safe, and to staying put in one place for such a long time. Especially when every little sound still had her reaching for her wand, lips already curved around a familiar incantation. Perhaps that was why she had come out here to sit in solitude: a desire to move, to find somewhere else and throw the people following them off their tracks. 

The war was over, she reminded herself, and she and Harry and Ron were safe. They could stay here, with Ron’s family, for as long as they wanted and needed, and finally relax and take a load off. 

Still, she admitted, it was a little hard to take a load off when she had been so excruciatingly tortured not long before. Her muscles were still aching in the aftermath of the Cruciatus Curse. She gingerly touched the still healing scar on her neck, a thin reminder of how close she had been to losing this life entirely. 

She shuddered, remembering the cold, tangy steel scent of the knife. Her arm throbbed with phantom pains and she carefully rolled up her sleeve to look at it. The crude, childish letters still looked exactly the way they had the day they were carved into her arm; still raw, thanks to a cursed blade. “Mudblood”, the letters read, a constant reminder that many still believed she had no right to exist in the wizarding world. But you do, she reminded herself. You got your letter, you were Sorted, your wand listens to you. You have just as much right to be a witch as anyone else.

She startled at the crack of a branch breaking behind her, derailing her train of thought. Ron appeared, holding up his hands non-threateningly. 

“It’s just me, ‘Mione.”

She let out a sigh. “Sorry, I guess I’m still a little… on edge.”

He sat beside her on the grass, squeezing her shoulder as he lowered himself to the ground. “So am I. Are you okay? Mum didn’t know where you’d gone.”

She nodded. “I just needed a minute to breathe. Does that make any sense?”

“Yeah, I think so. I guess we got used to fending for ourselves out there, huh.”

“And I love your family, it’s just… I still feel like I’m looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for something to jump out at me. And they don’t get it. They can’t ever understand that.”

He pulled her closer, lazily running a hand up and down her arm. “Me too. And I know Harry feels like that, too. That’s been his whole life.”

“And I know we’re safe, but it still feels too good to be true.”

“I feel it too.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.

She shook with tears. “I still feel so… scared. All the time. Is that ever going to stop?”

He gave her a squeeze. “I like to think so. But if not, we’ll still have each other to lean on. Always.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder and he leaned his head on hers. “We will.”


End file.
